


a stitch in time

by adelheid



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Feels, Ben Solo being a smart boi, F/M, Fix-It, Mutual Pining, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, TRoS Spoilers, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, covers both TFA and TLJ
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:41:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21873847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adelheid/pseuds/adelheid
Summary: When the Emperor throws Ben into the pit, the Force of all the Jedi interferes in order to assist the last Skywalker. Ben Solo is sent back to the past, to get it right this time around. (post-TROS)
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 346
Kudos: 1515





	1. Chapter 1

The Emperor slammed him against the rocks.

The impact broke almost every bone in his body. 

The pain was blinding, and yet it was nothing compared to the dread of knowing Rey was alone. 

He couldn't protect her against Palpatine’s attacks and she was still unconscious. 

He kept falling. His hands tried to cling to passing stones, but it was as if he was being sucked into the bowels of the planet core. Ben could not quiet his mind and summon enough Force to reverse the fall and return to her.

And then he felt it. 

A great surge of Force, beautiful and calming. 

Something was happening above. Rey was awake. 

He breathed for the first time in relief. 

He knew he couldn't help her now, she had to face him alone. But he tried to reach her through the bond to give her his strength. 

He felt her power growing, as he felt himself weakening.

He could hear faintly through the channel of their minds strange sounds, like voices coming from afar. 

Familiar voices.

Ben opened his eyes against a blinding white light. His father and mother and uncle Luke and Ben Kenobi and - and his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, and Master Yoda, and Mace Windu - _yes_ , he could hear and feel them all, even if he had never met some of these legendary Jedi.

And then the white light turned a terrible, lifeless grey. 

Ben opened his mouth. 

He howled and screamed. 

It felt worse than any fall. Worse than any physical mutilation.

The thread between him and Rey was broken.

She was dead. 

She had killed the Emperor, but he had taken her with him. 

Ben felt a rupture inside of him, something that could not be stitched back. He was hollowed out, a shell without a soul. She had been his soul. He raged and cried out at the universe which had allowed this to happen. He screamed at his ancestors to take it back, take it all back.

And then he heard his mother’s voice in his ear. 

_Ben. Come back. Come home._

And another. Wise and wry. Ben Kenobi.

_These are your first steps..._

After which there was only darkness. 

He woke up to the sound of house-droids whirring about the room. Strange. When he had contemplated the after-life, he had expected it to be a spiritual realm, a perfect union with the Force. Abstract. 

But as his senses returned to him, he became aware of the feel of sheets under him and the bad taste in his mouth after a night filled with nightmares. Nothing about this was abstract.

Ben gasped and startled awake, eyes blown wide. 

He jumped up, lifting himself from the bed. 

For a few moments he could only pant and shudder as he took in the all too familiar quarters. He couldn’t believe it. He felt his throat close up with nausea. These were his old rooms on Starkiller Base. 

Yet that wasn’t possible. The planet had been destroyed by the Resistance more than a year ago. 

Ben set himself down shakily. There was something wrong here. 

He saw his lightsaber propped against the wall and next to it, on the ash-filled metal pulpit, his mask. 

It was undamaged and unbroken, perfectly smooth and whole. 

Ben swallowed thickly. A second later, he felt the familiar presence in his mind, probing.

_Young Apprentice, I sensed a great disturbance in you earlier._

Ben clenched his jaw. Supreme Leader Snoke was addressing him directly.

Ben summoned all his willpower in order to remain calm and speak measuredly.

_It was only nightmares, Master._

_What kind of nightmares? I heard you screaming._

Ben took a gamble, as his father was wont to do. 

_Nightmares - nightmares of Han Solo._

To his relief, Snoke only chuckled. _Ah, as I suspected._ _It seems you are not ready yet, but you will be. When you finally take your father’s life, you will only feel a sense of calm, my young one._

Ben stilled himself. He made sure that Snoke sensed only the turmoil regarding his father and nothing else. 

_Yes, Master. Your guidance will help me achieve peace._

Snoke hummed softly, making Ben shudder. 

_Very well. You will join me later, for we have much to discuss._

When he was sure Snoke was no longer in his head, Ben fell back on the bed. He stared up at the ceiling. 

_When you finally take your father’s life_ , the horrid creature had said. 

Which meant…

The comlink next to his bed kept flashing. Ben reached out with his hand. 

_Incoming message from Captain Phasma,_ the AI whirred. And then the fierce woman’s voice thundered into the room. “Commander Ren. I have assembled the required Stormtrooper divisions for the raid on Jakku. We shall be ready for take-off in 14 hours.” 

Phasma. She was still alive. As was his father.

Ben still couldn’t believe it, but he had been taught that the Force must not be resisted. You must work with the Force, not against it.

He had to accept the fact that he had returned to the past. 

The panic subsided gradually. He centered himself, allowing the ineffable substance of the Force to course through him. 

Why had he been brought back? 

He’d been on the edge of death. And Rey…

_Rey!_

The call was almost instinctive. Ben put a hand over his mouth. He quickly shut his mind. Had Snoke heard? He needed to be careful. He knew now that it was Palpatine behind it all and that Snoke was merely a puppet, but it did not change the fact that it would require even more than his usual skill to keep the Sith out of his head. 

Still, Rey was alive. His father was alive. His mother was alive too. And uncle Luke...he was still hidden away.

He allowed a small smile to break his concentration. 

He remembered his mother’s voice in those last moments.

_Come back. Come home._

Yes, he’d come back. 

He’d been given a second chance. 

Obi-Wan had said these were his first steps. The first steps to undo everything. 

Ben felt the weight of it on his shoulders, but it was not burdensome. This was something he could soldier. 

He had done so much harm because he had trusted the wrong people and had let himself be seduced. Yet he hadn’t simply been a victim. He’d been vain and foolish and cruel on his own terms and he’d paid for it. He would still pay for it in the future, but at least now he could save the people who mattered. He could remove Evil from power. He could _truly_ finish what his grandfather had started. This purpose had always been inside him. Now it had an outlet. 

_Come back. Come home_. 

Yes, he would, but - 

Ben groaned internally. 

He couldn’t go to the Resistance. He couldn’t defect. Not yet. No matter how tempting. 

If he wanted to kill Palpatine for good and make sure Rey was not his casualty he had to work at it from the inside. He had to stay hidden. He could better sabotage the First Order from within. He did not know if he would survive this mission but he had to give it his all. There were some things which he could never erase. There were some doubts too. Despite everything, he still questioned the Skywalker path and the strict binary of the Jedi/Sith. But such questions would have to wait. 

He got up from the bed and walked to his drawers. He began putting on his dreaded uniform, one sleeve at a time. As if entering another skin. 

He stood before the mask as before the killing axe. 

He hesitated only a moment. He shrugged it on as if it was only a trinket. He tried to convince himself it was nothing. 

His breathing adjusted with difficulty. The world was narrowed down. He closed his eyes.

_Rey._

He shook his head. No, he would attempt to contact her when he was away from Snoke and only by degrees. It was too dangerous otherwise. It was better for her not to be connected with him at all. Yet it was so tempting to latch onto their bond. Now he knew it had always been there. Without it, he would be truly lost. Just the idea that she was alive somewhere, unaware of him and this terrible ordeal, made him feel better. 

He straightened his spine and inhabited the persona he was meant to play. He exited the quarters as Kylo Ren.

  
  


The little scavenger jerked her Speeder in the wrong direction, her foot hitting the brake before she knew what was happening. The vehicle teetered clumsily to the left, the turbo jet’s ring scraping the ground. She managed to park it before she did more damage to it. The engine groaned angrily as it came to a halt. The desert sun blinded her as she removed her goggles. She lowered the cloth around her mouth and inhaled the sand dust. She wiped the sweat from her brow. That had been very stupid. 

She didn’t know what had happened. But she’d heard a voice - deep and resonant and _urgent_ \- calling out to her in the desert. 

Just her name, twice.

_Rey._

She scanned the empty horizon, glinting white in the sun. There was no one else but her in this vast desert ocean. The closest sign of civilization was her Niima outpost further north. She was alone, as she always had been.

And yet that voice hadn’t come from out there. It had called from deep _inside_ her. 

How did he know her name? It had definitely been a he. 

Rey chewed on her thumb anxiously. This wasn’t the first time she had heard echoes of voices - too fine and faint to make out. Like ghosts on the edge of her consciousness. Presences she couldn’t begin to understand. The old women at the Niima outpost had told her it was only desert madness. If you spent enough time by yourself in this remote place you started to imagine all sorts of things in order to cope. 

But _this_ voice, unlike the rest, had been so clear. 

Maybe - just maybe - 

Could it be that her parents were finally coming back for her?

Rey felt a surge of hope at the thought. She looked up at the sky. 

Any day now. Any day. Perhaps _today_. 

She hopped back on the Speeder, racing for home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for your kind feedback! i thought i would post the second chapter before i reply to your reviews. yes, lol, this movie is making me write faster. so i guess that's a silver lining. anyway, hope you enjoy!

“There has been an awakening in the Force. Have you felt it?” 

Ben stared into Snoke’s sunken eyes. He did not shrink from that booming voice. His hologram did not have an intimidating aura anymore. In fact, the twisted creature looked pathetic.

Ben was thankful for his helmet now. He supposed his past self had not only wanted to honor Vader with it, but had also wanted a refuge against the intrusion of others. 

“I have,” he answered, keeping his mind empty. But he knew what Snoke meant by it, even if the old fool didn’t. The Sith puppet believed it was Luke Skywalker who was preparing to come out of hiding, but it was actually a scavenger girl from a godforsaken planet who was going to surprise everyone. The same planet he and the First Order troops would besiege in a matter of hours in order to get information from Lor San Tekka. 

“We must find the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker and put an end to it. If he comes forward again, the Jedi will rise with him,” Snoke prophesied in a grim voice. 

Ben knelt before him. “I will kill him myself, Master. Leave it to me.” 

Ideally, Snoke would trust him enough that he would not interfere, leaving Ben to deal with his uncle without the watchful eye of the Emperor. But that was wishful thinking indeed.

“Ah. Do not fill your mind with thoughts of glory yet. First you must face your father.”

Ben clenched his gloved fist. Would the foul thing never shut up about that? 

“Yes, Master.”

“I sense your impatience. Fret not. Your moment is coming.”

Ben came up with half a dozen retorts on the spot, but he kept a serene mind. Obedient and loyal. 

It was difficult, though. Now that he was free to be himself, his inherited sharp tongue and mistrust of authority made him want to lash out at every opportunity. And there was something else, something darker and more layered. The age-old desire to return the hurt: an eye for an eye. That must’ve come from his grandfather. He wanted Snoke to pay. He remembered how he had tortured Rey in the red room, how he had made her scream. 

His knuckles burned through the glove.

He was lucky to have the mask on, or his eyes would have betrayed him. 

It was easy enough to pretend that these outbursts were the usual thing for the unstable Kylo Ren.

Luckily, Snoke released him soon enough. 

He wasn’t out of the woods yet. As he took an elevator down to the hangar, he was intercepted by none other than General Hux, who stepped inside with him. 

“There you are, Ren. I was about to come find you. I’ll walk you to your ship.” 

“General Hux,” Ben replied evenly. 

He took a moment to size up the smarmy ginger official who was currently fixing his cuffs with an air of importance. Ben knew it was only a stratagem. Hux wanted to appear undisturbed by Kylo Ren and his dark Jedi tricks. He definitely wasn’t. 

Ben moved his finger an inch. Hux’s cuffs were suddenly perfectly buttoned. 

The general looked up with a discomfited look. His cheeks easily flushed.

“Did you -”

“Did I what?” Ben asked, his tone almost playful behind the mask.

Hux tried to hide an angry blush. “I am not here to play games, Ren. I came to inform you that you are to burn the village to the ground after you have obtained the necessary information. We don’t want to leave any rebel base in our wake.” 

Ben remembered now why he’d pretty much loathed the general in the past. He’d always considered him competition, even if Hux was not gifted with the Force. But he was gifted with other nasty talents. There was something both repugnant and compelling about him. He was power-hungry and coldly efficient. But he was also useful. What Ben needed was to foster allies, not enemies.

“Duly noted, thank you.”

Hux froze. Had he heard that right? The fractious and short-tempered Kylo Ren had deigned to _thank_ him? What sort of trick was this? Or was it an insult?

“ _Thank you_? What are you implying, Ren?”

“I was merely being civil.”

“You are hardly _ever_ civil,” Hux countered, eyes narrowed.

“I apologize for that. We all have bad days,” Ben replied with wry humor, though his voice retained the same mechanical monotone.

Hux’s eyebrows rode high on his forehead. “ _Bad days_? Are you mocking me? I will not suffer to be mocked.”

“Clearly, _you_ are having a bad day right now,” Ben continued in the same tone. “Perhaps you’ll be in a better mood when I return.”

He stepped off the elevator without looking back at the flustered general. Hux must be wondering what sort of scheme he was cooking up. He could handle a querulous Kylo Ren, but a _polite_ one? That was somehow worse.

Ben allowed himself a smile.

It soon vanished when he boarded the First Order ship. He was going to Jakku.

He would be so close to her - practically breathing the same air - yet he would not be able to go to her. He wanted so badly to see her, just to verify she was alive, even if he could feel she was. But he needed to see her in motion, to see her delicate yet sturdy figure, both solid and ethereal, run and chase and laugh. He realized how foolish he was being, mooning over a girl who even after all of this would probably have a hard time forgiving him.

He tried to focus on why he was here.

He knew he had to kill Lor San Tekka. If he didn’t, Phasma and her Stromtroopers would execute him anyway. He could make the old man’s death painless, at least.

As he stood there feeling sick over what he was about to do, he felt an echoing strand of anxiety. He lifted his head. It almost had a scent, this fear. The person feeling it was Force sensitive, although they did not know it.

Ben walked towards one of the windows. He stared at Phasma’s escorts, following on his right and left. And he realized who it was.

FN-2187: the mutinous Stormtrooper.

Finn.

He was going to go against his orders tonight. He did not wish to kill. He would eventually defect. Not only that, but he would go back to Jakku and run into Rey and the droid carrying the map to Luke. It had all been decided before.

Ben felt a horrible wave of jealousy wash over him. It was strong enough to make him feel like his old self again. He did not only resent Finn’s future meeting with Rey, but also his chance to break free. Finn could join the Resistance, could get away from all of this.

 _No. None of us can, not really_ , he argued with himself, trying to channel his anger towards the Emperor instead. Finn was not to blame, even though Ben could not help feeling something close to hatred when he thought of the Stromtrooper growing close to Rey. He was ashamed of it.

He knew it was futile to feel jealousy. Rey – Rey wasn’t his. She would probably never be. He was going to kill an old man tonight, as he had done for many nights.

She deserved better than him, and he knew it. If she cared for Finn, if Finn made her happy, he had no right to interfere.

Ben shut his eyes. This line of thinking would make him slip again. He had to distract himself. He thought about his father instead. Han Solo would soon get involved in this affair, if things turned out as before. What would he do then? How to trick both the Emperor and save Han? If he failed to kill his father, Palpatine would never reveal himself to him in his true form. Not only that, but he would be forced to fight all the Knights of Ren at once to prove himself. Snoke had made him go through this ritual every time he was doubted his allegiance, and with each year, it grew more difficult to withstand so many blood-thirsty, Force-wielding warriors who wanted to replace him.

Ben shuddered at the thought. He leaned back in his seat and let his mind wander. Peace. Quiet.

Her.

He hadn’t meant to fall into the bond, but in his rather weak defense, she was inadvertently calling to him too, even though she didn’t know it. 

Her pull was too strong to resist.

He was suddenly sitting inside the bowels of a combat walker. He recognized the make instantly. He’d studied the Empire’s warships assiduously. This was an old AT-AT. It must have been used during the Galactic Civil War. Its makeshift quarters were so small and cramped he had to duck and fold himself in. It took him a few moments to realize this was her home. He had seen flashes of her loneliness and the desolation of her life before, but never quite like this.

The handful of personal items – an iron pot of wilted weeds, a few dented copper plates and cups, some threadbare shawls, rugs and blankets, a braided doll - were scattered around haphazardly. But what drew his eye were the hundreds of notches scratched on the far wall. One for each day. And underneath that wall, lying on a makeshift hammock, fast asleep, was Rey. Tucked into herself.

Tiny, yet luminescent.

Her mouth was half-open. She was muttering in her sleep.

“Please…don’t go…don’t go…”

 _I won't_ , he said, even though he knew she wasn't addressing him. 

Ben felt her loneliness like a dull blade. It cut through him jaggedly. He wanted to pick her up and take her away from this place right now. He wanted to abandon the mission and simply run away with her, which was ludicrous. 

The most he could really do was stoop by her side and watch her sleep.

He took off one glove and reached out gently. He let his knuckles brush against her warm cheek. He traced the constellation of freckles. The contact felt like a spark of electricity. Touching her in person, he knew, was even more potent. He was almost drunk with it. 

Rey stirred, eyelids fluttering.

Ben rose quickly.

 _You’re not alone_ , he whispered to her and closed off the bond before she could wake up.

Rey startled awake with a short intake of breath.

She looked around her, disoriented, almost as if she did not know where she was. She was sweltering, the heat making her damp clothes stick to her skin. It was usually cold this time of night. She touched her feverish forehead. Her fingers slid down to her cheek, to the spot he had touched.

Her heart beat fast.

It must have been a dream. It had felt real.

The shadowy figure of a man looming over her, caressing her cheek…

Maybe the old women were right. The loneliness was driving her mad. Yet it had felt…nice. Nice and a little dangerous. She didn’t like strangers in her home.

But he wasn’t real. He was only a product of her mind.

Rey’s eyes landed on the table. She gaped.

The weeds inside the pot had flowered, their bloom pink and luscious. She blinked. Was this a dream too?

She shrugged on a ratty shawl and ran out into the cold night air. 

She breathed in, scared and elated. 

The dark sky was full of stars.

“Commander Ren.”

He opened his eyes. They had already landed, the officer informed him.

Ben dismissed the man as he shrugged on his helmet. He knew what needed to be done.

When the platform was lowered, he stepped off his ship in all the requisite pomp of a Sith Lord, steam shrouding his billowing dark robes, Stormtroopers following in his wake. He scanned the small village with a practiced eye. It would take no time at all to destroy everything here. It was so easy to annihilate, yet so difficult to build again.

Phasma and her divisions made quick work of rounding up prisoners and setting the huts on fire.

Ben walked on.

As he crossed the clearing he felt the Stormtrooper’s presence nearby. Finn.

He turned his head and saw him standing a few feet away, holding his gun at his side, looking lost.

Ben stared him down almost menacingly, and sent a nudge through the Force, almost like a push. It could not be translated into words exactly, but if it could, it would have sounded like, _what are you waiting for? Go._

Ben continued straight ahead, leaving Finn behind.

Lor San Tekka was dragged out of his hut by the Stormtroopers.

Ben stopped in front of him. He remembered what he had told Tekka the first time around.

_Look how old you’ve become._

To which the wise man had replied, _Something far worse has happened to you._

Ben had known Tekka when he wasn’t so old and vulnerable. He had been a traveler and an explorer, a follower of the Church of the Jedi, fanatic in his veneration of both Luke and Leia. He had helped Luke recover old Jedi artifacts and had always been a loyal dog in Leia’s service. Ben remembered seeing him engaged in muttered conversations with his mother in her private study. Back then, he had suspected that Tekka wanted to replace his father in his mother’s affections. He had been foolish, of course. Yet he could not say he really liked the old man. Something about his blind veneration of the Jedi had always rubbed him the wrong way. Tekka had once told little Ben when he was not even ten that he would one day go on to do great things. He was bound to, given his lineage.

Ben would have liked to tell him now that lineage was not everything.

Instead, he said, “You know why I’ve come. The map to Skywalker. We know you found it. You’ll give it to the First Order now.”

The old man smiled. “The First Order rose from the dark side. You did not. It’s good to see you again, Ben.”

Ben raised his hand and made him kneel on the sand. The old man groaned.

Then he was in his mind.

_It’s good to see you too. Have you spoken to my mother? Don’t look up._

Tekka shuddered, as if convulsing with pain. To any outside viewer, it looked as if he was being tortured.

The old man stared at the ground in shock, but did not look up. He did his best to answer.

_I – I have. She is upset, of course. She told me if I met you to speak with you, to try and convince you…Ben, are you coming back home?_

_I can't. Not yet. I have a duty to carry out. And there is something I need you to do. For my mother’s sake._

And just like that, Lor San Tekka understood. He understood he had to die. He was wise beyond his years. He smiled and closed his eyes.

_Anything for you and her, my boy._

_My Prince._

The last appellation made Ben shiver. Tekka had always insisted on calling Leia by her royal title. 

_Thank you,_ he replied uneasily. 

He was on the verge of saying sorry, but there was no apologizing for death. It would be an insult to his old age.

Ben took out his saber and ignited the angry red flames.

Before he cut the man in half, he flicked his wrist and made sure he was unconscious. Small mercy that was.

Tekka was still smiling. 

Ben felt nauseous. He almost missed the laser shot coming straight at him. He managed to freeze it mid-flight at the last moment. He also froze the man who took the shot.

Ben was unhappy to see Poe the Pilot standing before him. The man reminded him of a young Han Solo, plucky and devil-may-care, but secretly dedicated to his cause.

He did not have time for their back and forth.

“The old man gave you the map,” he said before Poe could open his mouth.

He ordered his men to take him on board. He knew Finn needed a pilot to escape. He tried to suppress the jealousy that still raged inside him.

Captain Phasma approached him archly, asking what should be done about the villagers.

Ben knew the orders from Snoke, delivered by General Hux. He steeled himself. But at the last moment, he couldn’t say it.

“Ask General Hux. I’m only interested in finding the map. I care little about anything else,” he replied coolly and walked away.

He knew he was being a coward. He had only delayed the order, but maybe some people would be able to escape the carnage.

If he were a truly good man, he would light up his saber and try to help them.

Instead he kept walking towards his ship.

He thought of Rey, only miles away, sleeping by herself in her own ship.

His loneliness twined with hers under the starlit sky.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much to everyone for reviewing and supporting this story! i'm tentatively going forward. I have a big plan in mind, I hope it all makes sense and doesn't sound too OC. thx again!

Ben thumbed through his holopad, reading fragments of First Order reports, trying to suppress a yawn. He remembered now why he took the readings to bed so often. His “prisoner” groaned, struggling weakly against the metal straps of the holding cell.

Ben raised his fingers. “No, no, go back to sleep.”

Poe eyed him blearily before his head fell back, unconscious.

Ben tapped the side of his pad. In the previous timeline, Kylo Ren had extracted the whereabouts of the map from Poe, had learned that it had been left with the repair droid, and had informed Hux about it, leading to First Order TIE-fighters being sent down to Jakku. Now was Ben’s chance to give them the wrong piece of intel and have them chase a dead end. He needed the First Order to stop sniffing around Jakku.

What other destination could he give them?

He pulled up maps of the quadrant on his pad and looked over them absently.

Until he hit upon it.

The Hosnian system.

He knew the top secret plan set in motion for the inauguration of Starkiller Base’s weapon. They were going to test-run it on the Hosnian system and blow up all the planets, killing millions.

But if he told them that Poe had managed to send an envoy to one of the planets with the map perhaps there would be a delay. They couldn’t destroy the system before they found the map, and the search would take a long time. 

Maybe if the delay was long enough, the Resistance would be able to destroy the Base earlier. That was a big maybe, though.

If everything went down as in the previous timeline, in an hour or two, Finn would help Poe escape. The two would be separated once they landed back on Jakku. Finn would run into Rey and BB-8 at the Niima outpost. And then what? If there were no incoming First Order ships they would probably not need to leave Jakku so urgently. At least they wouldn’t take the Millennium Falcon. BB-8 would probably still insist on delivering the map to Leia and the Resistance as soon as possible, but that would not require Rey to leave with them. He didn’t know how he felt about that. Would it be better for her to stay on Jakku, feeling alone and miserable, or join Finn and the Resistance, which might put her in danger?

She wouldn’t be able to stay hidden for long, anyway. Sooner or later, Palpatine would find her. It was only a matter of time.

The prisoner had awakened. He was mumbling something.

“You…what are you…doing to me?” Poe asked, still bleary-eyed.

Ben got up. “Torturing you. Making you suffer. You’re in a lot of pain, you just don’t know it.”

Poe frowned. “No…I’m not and you’re not…”

Ben raised his hand and the pilot fell asleep again. He was beginning to like this new method of “torture”.

But he decided it was time to go tell the First Order to chase its own tail.

If Hux was surprised to hear about the Hosnian system he didn’t show it, but Ben could feel his elevated pulse. He could also hear the slight edge to his voice when he said, “That is too big a coincidence. Does that mean the Resistance knows of our plans regarding the system?”

Ben nodded soberly. “It's likely there’s been a data breach. It must’ve happened from the inside. Not many people know about the inauguration.”

Hux scowled. “Are you suggesting there’s a mole? I have handpicked my men, they have been trained since birth –“

“No one is throwing any accusations yet,” Ben replied evenly. “But be on the watch.”

“ _Be on the watch_?” Hux sneered. “My, what would I do without your sage advice, Ren?”

Ben smiled behind his helmet. He almost enjoyed bantering with Armitage. The man reminded him of an evil version of C-3PO.

An officer came running from the upper deck.

“Sir, pardon the intrusion but the Resistance Pilot – he’s managed to escape! And he was aided by one of our own, a Stormtrooper. We’re checking the registers now to identify him–“

Hux turned an ugly shade of burgundy. “ _What_? How could that happen right under our noses? Find me that Stormtrooper!”

Ben smirked beneath the mask. “Well, I guess that answers our question of the mole.”

Hux fumed. “Somebody get Captain Phasma down here! There’ll be hell to pay!”

Ben was on his way to inform Snoke of the proceedings, as the Supreme Leader had summoned him for that express purpose, when he felt a dangerous tug wrenching him away from the reality of the corridor.

He dropped his helmet to the floor and had to grip the wall.

She was in danger.

His pulse chased. Had someone already found her?

But no, it wasn’t that.

She was falling.

He had moments to realize she was inside a giant destroyer she was scavenging and she had slipped from her stirrup and was about to fall to an untimely death.

The violence of his dread made the wreckage around them vibrate. Ben reached out to her with all his strength and caught her in his arms.

Her weight fell against him as she screamed.

Rey looked up at him mid-fall, eyes wide with shock. He was a solid thing, a _real_ person. She saw his face. Ben cursed and pulled her head into his chest, blocking her view of him. His heartbeat echoed straight into her cheek. 

Rey clung to him, hands scrabbling for support. She was a fierce thing. 

The problem was, now they were both falling into the skeletal abyss.

He focused on breaking their fall, but the energy required to physically hold her while still back on the First Order ship was too great for him to do much else. He gripped her to him harder. She felt coltish, but strong. He needed her strength. They were a dyad, after all.

 _Rey…focus…stop…fall_ , was all he could muster to say to her.

And miraculously, she did. The adrenaline helped. Her strength flew into him and joined his effort, and they managed to ease the fall so that they collapsed in a heap on the metal-strewn sand.

He felt her warmth against his for a moment longer, before they rolled away from each other, coughing.

He realized he was angry. He wanted to shout at her, tell her she had been a reckless fool. But this _was_ her job, stripping these old ships of anything useful. She couldn’t help it. Would he be there next time to catch her?

Ben looked at her one last time, assuring himself that she was safe, before blocking the bond.

He opened his eyes. A few Stormtroopers had gathered around him tentatively, afraid to ask him if he was all right. He was sprawled in the middle of the corridor. Ben cursed under his breath again.

“Nothing to see here. Back to your posts,” he muttered, heaving himself up with difficulty.

By the time he reached Snoke, the foul thing had found out what had happened.

“I sensed the disturbance, my Apprentice. It nearly bested you. Tell me _who_.”

Ben fell to his knees. He didn't have to fake the bone-deep exhaustion. His voice trembled. “It was him, Master. Luke Skywalker. I – I was trying to reach him. I was hoping to find his location. He – he must have caught me interfering and repelled me.”

There was silence for several moments.

Snoke stroked his hollow chin. “Interesting. So what I've sensed is true. The awakening has happened. He is on the move. He knows we are close to finding him and must be getting rattled. Did you manage to see where he was?”

“No, Master.”

Snoke raised his finger and Ben was suddenly lifted off the ground. He tried not to give way to panic. Clear head, empty mind.

“Are you sure about that, young _Solo_? You might be mistaken and not even know it.”

He felt Snoke rummage through his mind, looking for secret corners. Ben focused on how much he hated the name “Solo”, which wasn’t entirely a lie. He’d always had complicated feelings about his father, that was no secret. 

“The only one – who made a mistake – is Luke,” Ben gritted out, fighting the lack of gravity.

Snoke chuckled. He pricked Ben’s mind with a sharp needle. “Yes, that was rash of him, wasn’t it? Perhaps he shall do it again. When he does, you will summon me first. I can give you strength.”

“Y-yes, Master.”

After a few more excruciating moments he was lowered to the floor. Sweat had soaked through his robes. He wiped a few drops of blood from his mouth.

“Remember, I am your only ally against your family.”

Ben lowered his head. "They're not my family."

That seemed to please the Supreme Leader. He smiled. “I hear we are to _scavenge_ the Hosnian System for the map. It seems we have Resistance infiltrators in our midst. I expect you to conduct the necessary interrogations and sniff out the rats.”

“Of course, Master.”

“Make sure that mole is found and killed,” he spoke, almost bored now. “You are dismissed.”

Ben walked away with as much dignity as possible.

He only breathed a sigh of relief when he was alone in his quarters. Why had Snoke used the word “scavenge”? Had he seen -? But he had kept his mind locked against Rey.

In the previous timeline, the creature had claimed that _he_ had been the one to unite his and Rey’s minds, but Ben knew that was a lie. This connection existed long before Snoke or Palpatine had thought to bridge it. It was a dyad. A singular, unique phenomenon. Therefore, it was _theirs_ and theirs alone, their own private channel. Whatever Snoke thought he knew, it wasn’t enough; it hadn’t been enough to prevent his own death.

Even so, Snoke might have suspicions. He _would_ eventually find out about her, but he would want his apprentice to maintain contact with the young girl.

Ben simply had to outwit him again when the time came.

He brought his hands to his face.

She had seen him, if only for a moment. One of his father’s favorite curses came to mind.

He had to stay away from her, yet the more she grew into her powers, the harder that would be. Because he was certain that _she_ had called to him mid-fall without meaning to.

What if she did that again?

He had to teach her to control it, but he had to let himself be _known_ in order to do that, which he couldn’t exactly do.

“This is terrible,” he said out loud in the room.

But at least he had saved her. She had been so close to dying – he didn’t want to think about it. But it had felt good to hold her. Disturbingly good.

He lay down and tried to rest in order to recover his strength.

On the brink of sleep, he thought he heard a voice from beyond, soft and musical, yet needling and curious…

_Whoever you are...thank you._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm truly overwhelmed by your wonderful feedback and suggestions, thank you! i'd be lying if i didn't say it also puts a bit of pressure on me. i hope i don't disappoint! hope you enjoy this chapter!

She had never fallen before. Rey knew exactly where to put her hands and feet to avoid such missteps. She’d had a whole life of training.

And yet she had slipped.

It had been that strange, horrible vision: a vista opening in front of her without warning. As if she had been forcefully teleported. It was the hallway of a ship, stretching in front of her, lights flickering in the distance eerily, the thud of feet, walking, walking, _walking_ endlessly towards a dark room where only fear and horror awaited…

 _Turn back_ , she cried out. _Turn back._

Rey yelped as she felt her body give way. In a split second, she knew she was going to die.

And then – she didn’t.

He caught her in the nick of time, solid arms coming around her protectively. She hadn’t been held like that since childhood.

She saw him, the man.

She had expected someone older, a father figure. Her own father, perhaps, as foolish as that might sound.

But he couldn’t be.

He was too young, with his shoulder-length hair and soft, expressive face. Yet he also looked…important, in some way, imposing and larger than life. It was a strange contradiction. She remembered he had been warm, and his dark eyes had regarded her with familiarity, even kindness.

He’d seemed…nice.

 _Nice?_ Rey rolled her eyes. _You think the ghost man is nice._ _You don’t know anything about him._

 _He saved my life, at least,_ she argued against her more suspicious self. Rey couldn’t afford to put her trust in visions, but she couldn’t deny it had all felt absolutely real. That had to count for something.

She mopped the last bits of veg-meat with the polystarch and licked her fingers. She still felt hungry, but she knew she ought to save the last quarter of the portion in case she came up short for parts the next day. Her body was still quite sore from the fall and she doubted she’d be able to scale old destroyers. She could barely lift herself from her cot.

She thought again about what that mysterious apparition had told her. He’d spoken directly into her mind and urged her to stop the fall. Almost as if they’d worked together. She’d certainly felt it that way. But what had she done, exactly? What sort of power was this? Had it come from him, or was it her own?

It scared her that she _wasn’t_ very scared, that somehow, this did not seem so outlandish to her. All these years in the desert, hearing voices and feeling impossible connections… it all made more sense now…

She _wanted_ it to make sense, at least.

_Or you’re so lonely and desperate that you invented a savior. But actually, you saved yourself._

Rey heaved a weary sigh. She always saved herself, in the end.

She closed her eyes and tried to see him again, tried to recreate his features. No matter who he was, he was a calming distraction.

As she fell asleep, she sent out a call to him, shy but resonant.

_Whoever you are...thank you…_

She did not hear the panicked beeps in the dunes below. She couldn’t have gotten up to help even if she had. Rey slept on, exhausted. BB-8 was caught in Teedo’s net and taken away.

Ben levitated the giant combat remote about the room. The metal ball hovered eerily above the corporals’ heads, making them swallow too quickly. Ben moved it lazily to and fro, circling the wide table. This sort of sadistic, punitive behavior was expected from someone like Kylo Ren, and Ben would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the fringe benefits of this performance. He rather liked keeping them on edge. 

General Hux cleared his throat in irritation.

“When you’re doing playing, Ren –”

“You think this is a game, General?” he retorted with that deceptive calm which usually preceded a tantrum. The heavy ball hovered above the ginger’s head.

Hux clenched his jaw. “I’d appreciate it if we could have your undivided attention.”

“You have it.”

Hux did not look convinced. “Very well. We have summoned this Council meeting to discuss our strategy for the Hosnian system."

Murmurs quickly bloomed between those assembled, as they shuffled papers and thumbed datapads. 

"Naturally," Hux continued, "we must operate with the utmost stealth, because we do not wish to let the Hosnians know they have something we want. Under no circumstances can we allow them to find out what is on the map. That will give them leverage. Besides, they might try to hide the map from us. Or worse, destroy it. We must proceed with caution.”

Ben smiled behind his mask. “What makes you think they don’t already know? We must assume there are Resistance cells there, since Dameron felt comfortable sending the map to them.”

Hux’s nostrils flared. “We assume nothing without proof. Our job is to _contain_ this breach. We must infiltrate the system as soon as possible and recover the map without their knowing any better. I have assembled our best contacts for the job. Bazine Netal and her associates have informed me that they have already gained a foothold in Hosnian Prime’s black market. It would be a good idea to turn local spies as well. I have been informed that such measures are already under way. There’s also the issue of employing slicers to break the Hosnian encryptions and access their networks. You’ll be happy to know I have drawn up a list of–” 

Ben cleared his throat. “You are involving too many people in this scheme, General. People tend to talk.”

Hux glowered. “They know what happens if they do. Besides, none of them have been briefed about the true contents of the map.”

Ben leaned forward. “The people at this table might also talk. We recently discovered a mole in our ranks.”

He moved his fingers lazily. The ball hovered menacingly above each head. He could see the fear shining wetly in their eyes, fear and shrewd calculation. How much did Ren know, they wondered? Had he looked into their minds? What had he seen?

He hoped they were doubting themselves and each other.

“Not _our_ ranks,” Hux drawled importantly. “He was only a Stormtrooper.”

“I take full responsibility for his actions, Sir,” Captain Phasma chimed in from the other end of the table. She sounded rather aggrieved. “I can guarantee you it was the first and last such mutiny under my command.”

“Guarantee or not, we have more pressing matters to attend to,” Hux prattled on, annoyed at the various interruptions. “Colonel Kaplan, Lieutenant Mitaka, we will need to plan a decoy attack on an unconnected system, so that we keep the Resistance and their spies occupied while we hunt for the map –”

“Waste your energies, if you must,” Ben interfered again, “but don’t involve me in these attacks. I am going directly on Hosnian Prime to retrieve the map.”

Hux blinked. “ _Excuse me_? We were just talking about the need for _stealth_.”

“Yes?” Ben asked, voice growing quieter. A bad sign for anyone who knew Kylo Ren.

Hux tried to sound polite about it, or as polite as he could manage it. “No one here doubts your talents, Commander Ren, but there is a possibility you would endanger the mission. You – you would stand out in the capital, with or without your… helmet.”

Ben got up from his chair in one fluid motion.

The whole room froze, each pair of eyes locked on him. Ben could taste the danger of such power. It was heady like wine.

He knew Hux was absolutely right. He hummed to himself. Kylo Ren did not like to be contradicted. Kylo Ren damaged more than built. And in that way, he was a perfect tool for sabotage.

Ben suddenly pulled the ball towards him and launched it with a deafening crash into the control board a few feet away. He heaved the ball up again and made it smash the hard drives, until he was sure they would need replacing. Sparks flew in all directions. Colonels ducked their heads. Hux was trembling slightly.

This was all par for the course with Kylo Ren.

But Ben could not remain indifferent, despite his performance. He felt anger course through him, an anger he could not examine in this room, with these people. He wanted revenge, but he knew that such a path led back to Kylo Ren. He quieted his mind.

“I am going to Hosnian Prime, General, and that is final. Make sure you do not test me again.”

Hux’s face was a colorful canvas. Loathing and fear battled for supremacy in equal part, but the latter won without much of a struggle.

“Of course, _Ren_. You are, as always, an invaluable asset.”

Ben marched up to him and put a heavy, gloved hand on his shoulder. He gave the man a reassuring, frightening squeeze. Hux shrank, eyeing him with confusion.

“That’s what I like to hear, General.”

_Kriff_. The pantomime would soon start to chafe.

Or perhaps the danger was that he rather enjoyed it.

No one noticed he hadn’t hurt anyone this time. He felt a twinge when he recalled that, even as Ren, he had taken out his wrath on non-sentient machinery, more often than not.

He hoped the seeds of doubt among the Order were beginning to hatch. He was going to delay and protract the Hosnian chase until the Resistance was ready.

He couldn't lie to himself. He would enjoy watching their destruction. 

Ben knew that there were innocents among the ranks, people who had been drafted into this thankless, greedy apparatus, children stolen from their homes. Their death would not be welcome. But there were many in the higher ranks who knew exactly what they were doing and Ben wanted nothing more than to sink his saber into their weak spines.

 _That’s still the Dark Side talking,_ he chided himself, trying to subdue it. The problem was, he had to let it flow freely if he did not wish for Snoke to suspect foul play.

Not for the first time he envied Finn. He thought about Poe too. He could have told the intrepid pilot that he was a spy. He could have sent a message to his mother.

But he hadn’t been wrong when he’d told the Council that people talk. Such secrets could not be kept, no matter the good intentions of the Resistance. He simply had to keep going. There was no room for second-guessing.

Still flush with residue anger, Ben stalked to his quarters.

He was feeling ravenously hungry, as if he hadn’t eaten in days. It was true that he could not remember his last meal, but that had never bothered him so much before.

He sealed the entrance, removed his helmet, and ordered the protocol droids to bring his meal.

But as he ate, the hunger did not go away, nor did the anger.

He shoveled piece after piece in his mouth, yet the food did not fill his belly. Ben set his knife down. He realized that it wasn’t simply _his_ hunger he was feeling. He wiped his mouth.

 _She_ was hungry. Her belly was churning. She was dehydrated and weak.

Ben clenched his hand around the knife. He tried to block out the image already forming in front of him.

It was too late.

He saw the girl standing dejectedly in front of a grimy stall, collecting her ration of food from an ugly hulk of a Crolute, three times her size.

“What you’ve brought me here is worth…one half portion.”

Rey licked her cracked lips. “Last week, they were a half portion each.”

The Crolute sneered. “Last week, you did not bring me _junk_. Take it or leave it.”

 _It’s all junk anyway_ , she thought angrily. “I –I’m recovering from an injury. I couldn’t get the usual parts.”

“Do I look like a hospice to you?” he drawled. “Take the bloody food or leave.”

She did, her expression crumbling, even as she tried to give away nothing. She stuffed the meager rations into her little sack, shoulders sagging. She was unsteady on her feet, but her mind was already planning a hunt. She hated hurting animals of any kind, but perhaps she could lay traps for lizards again. That would take _days_ , if she was lucky, but she wouldn’t let the despair get the better of her. She’d find a way, she always did…

“What are you still doing here?” Unkar Plutt screeched. “Get moving, girl. I don’t like loiterers.”

Rey allowed herself a glare.

But it was nothing compared to what Ben felt.

His reaction was swift and instantaneous. His residual anger flared up and turned into a small fire. He was going to tear that beast limb from limb and then feed him those very limbs. He was going to unmake him. His thumb traced the edge of the knife and he ran his finger down, like striking a match.

Rey fell back with a shriek.

There was a sudden, roaring explosion behind the stalls.

The Crolute howled and lumbered outside in fear.

His entire Concession Stand was on fire.

Rey gaped.

Ben only had moments to realize what he’d done. _Oh, no. Kriff. You kriffing idiot._

Unkar screamed with rage. He pointed his thick finger at her. “Arrest her! Arrest that girl! _She_ did this!”

Rey panicked. “No! I didn’t – it wasn’t me! I had nothing to do with it!”

Unkar’s cronies jumped into action, closing in on her.

Rey wielded her staff in a wide arc, hitting two of them, and tripping a third. The guards tried to grab her, but she fought them off, using her elbows and knees and even teeth, wrestling like a feral child of the sands, knowing there was no fair fighting here, only survival. She quickly dived into the crowd that had gathered to ogle at her and tried to lose the cronies behind the still erect stalls.

The Niima Outpost, however, was too small for such maneuvers.

“Catch her, don’t let her get away!” Unkar howled.

They came after her, surrounding her on all sides.

Rey knew it was a losing fight.

She slammed her staff into their shields, trying to keep them away.

If she could only reach her speeder - but they had faster vehicles - 

It was no good.

Suddenly, she was on her knees, one foot pressed into her back, and stun cuffs clasped around her wrists. 

“Take her to the brig!” Unkar cried. “Tomorrow, we’ll send her to a _real_ prison, off-planet. It’s time she were someone else’s problem for a change.”

Rey felt real terror at the words. _Prison. Off-planet._

_No!_

She had to stay here. She couldn’t be sent away. Her parents wouldn't know where to find her. 

She cried out that she was innocent, cried for _mercy_ , but a blow behind her head silenced her completely.

The last thing she heard was an urgent voice in her ear, cursing rather graphically while trying to assure her she would be all right.

He would fix it.

Rey shook her head.

She knew she shouldn’t have trusted that vision. She let the darkness swallow her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> solo boys, amirite


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you so much for your feedback, I'm so grateful! I hope you like this chapter.

When Rey opened her eyes, she thought she was dreaming. She thought her parents had finally come for her to take her with them, and she was on board their ship.

She tried to get up and call for them.

_Mum! Dad!_

But she couldn’t really stand up. There was a crick in her neck. She touched it gingerly and found a bit of swollen flesh there, like an insect’s welt. She’d been injected with something. She could bet her unlucky stars it was a tracking chip.

Her head hit a low roof, crisscrossed with metal bars.

Rey blinked. This wasn’t even a holding cell. She was inside a glorified cage.

The ship shuddered as it passed through a rough magnetic field and the few ceiling lights flickered briefly before going out again. It was enough for Rey to see other cages lined up along the hull. All of them filed with prisoners, most of whom were asleep.

Rey fell back down, clutching her knees to her chest.

She remembered now. She was no longer on Jakku.

Unkar Plutt had exiled her. She was going to a prison planet; somewhere her parents would never be able to track her.

Rey pressed a fist to her mouth. Panic bubbled in her belly. What had she _done_?

No, it hadn’t been her. She’d done nothing wrong. She was innocent.

It had been – _him_.

He’d blown up the Concession Stand, whoever _he_ was. _He_ had gotten her in this mess.

But – but how had he done it? Had he been somewhere nearby? Spying on her? Had he set up explosives?

No…The fire had seemed to come out of nowhere, almost like he’d willed it with his mind.

She thought back to her fall in the destroyer. He had told her to stop the fall. She had felt his power join with hers. She had felt all the elements around her bending to her will, as if she had been in control of her environment.

If it was possible to manipulate gravity, maybe one could also start fires out of thin air.

The question was, had she unknowingly conspired with him to set Unkar on fire?

She didn’t want to think so. She’d never outright try to _kill_ the Crolute.

Whoever this man was, he was reckless and short-tempered. She had felt his anger in her head. It had been near devastating.

Well, _she_ was angry now. If it hadn’t been for him she would still be on Jakku.

She wanted to scream at him.

When the snarl came behind her, she almost jumped out of her skin. For a moment, she thought it might be him.

“You…girl…” the creature hissed, its tentacle mouth pressing against the bars of his cage. He sported a strange, needle-like contraption which braided his tentacles together. It looked rather painful.

Rey recognized the squid-like creature. It was a Quarren. She’d seen their likeness on First Order holopads. He must’ve been far away from his ocean planet. He looked rather old and haggard.

“Have you any food?” the Quarren asked. “Or _are_ you food?”

Rey frowned. “Neither. Do you know where we’re going?” 

The Quarren coughed and his braided tentacles trembled. “Nowhere good.”

“I gathered that myself.”

“Mm…sure you don’t have any food?”

“Are you in pain?” she asked, to distract him. “That needle looks bad.”

He seemed both offended and surprised by her question. He backed away, tucking his tentacles into his chin. “I deserve it.”

“Why?”

“I once betrayed a master. Not a good master, mind you. But he was useful to me. He trusted me, the fool.”

Rey wiped grime from her cheek. “Where is he now?”

“Dead, of course. Or I wouldn’t be here,” the Quarren snapped moodily.

Rey knew she should probably not meddle further, but she desperately needed to talk to someone to keep herself from thinking about her predicament.

“How did he die?”

The Quarren narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re inferring.”

“I wasn’t –”

“A woman killed him. A _human_ woman.” He gave her a pointed look. “He had a weakness for their kind. I don’t understand the appeal. No offense to you, girl.”

“None taken.”

“The funny thing is, she was in chains. She was his slave. And she still managed it.”

Rey bristled. “I’m sure that’s _why_ she did it. No one should enslave another being.”

The Quarren seemed to smile, if it could be called that. “Where we’re going, girl, there’s only slaves.”

“I thought you didn’t know where we’re going.”

“I didn’t say that. I said nowhere good.”

Rey scowled. “Then tell me.” After a pause, she added a moderate, “please.”

The Quarren shrugged. “Won’t make much of a difference.”

“I’ll help you with that needle, if you do.” 

He shook his head. “Nice of you to offer, but it’s sealed off. You can’t open it with your hands.”

 _No, but maybe I can do it with my mind,_ she thought. But then she realized how stupid she sounded. Just because of what had happened recently didn’t mean she had control over this power, whatever it was.

Rey slumped against her cage.

The Quarren sighed. “ _Fine_. We’re going to Cantonica. They need slave hands.”

Rey blinked. “Cantonica?”

She had no idea what or where this was. It sounded fairly exotic.

“Can you tell me anything about it?”

The Quarren chuckled. “Sure. It’s a lovely place, and the smell is even better. You’ll be cleaning fathier shit all your life, girl.”

Rey didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking what a “fathier” was, but it didn’t sound very appealing.

Rey huddled down. Would it be worse than her meager existence on Jakku?

Yes, because she would be further away from her parents, further away from where she had started. She would be lost in a giant galaxy that did not care about her.

She held in the tears. There wasn’t time for moping now. She was still angry. She had to find a way to escape.

Ben had visited city-planets before, but none quite as hectic as Hosnian Prime. The place was teeming with activity, from skyscraper domiciles and senate forums, to flea markets and art galleries. Coming from the clinical and orderly atmosphere of the First Order, this was a rather welcome relief. The planet was split into several districts, one more boisterous and overpopulated than the other. The industrial district, which he’d chosen to “infiltrate”, was by far the loudest, but the population was smaller, because nobody liked living next to giant metallurgies and ship-building docks if they could help it. Most of the population was made up of contractors, laborers and black market smugglers. Ben liked it, because it was more honest and unpretentious than the districts dealing with business or government. But he supposed his childhood living with a smuggler had also set him in his ways. He trusted the underbelly more than the painted façade.

He would still stand out in a crowd here, which was rather his plan, but he would also be given privacy from officials, privacy to continue sabotaging the First Order.

Right now, however, all plans seemed utterly _pointless_.

What did it matter whether he managed to take them down if Rey was stuck in some godforsaken prison?

And it was _his_ fault too. What _had_ possessed him?

The Dark Side of the Force was always blurred when he was around her. Sometimes it was heightened, other times it was muted. He could never quite _control_ it – or rather, he could, when they worked together, when she completed him. On his own, he was –

 _An idiot_ , he decided, running a hand through his hair.

His need to protect her had actually endangered her. He’d tried contacting her through the bond and hadn’t managed to gather much except that she had been given a tracking chip and then sedated. Every spare moment he kept throwing himself against the walls of her unconscious mind, hoping she’d wake up.

He couldn’t sleep or eat or even think – until finally, _finally_ she responded.

She was awake.

_Rey!_

_Rey, are you all right?_

_Rey, **please**. _

He expected her to be upset, but the sudden force of her shout through the bond almost made him fall off his seat.

 _You!_ she seemed to howl into his ear, _of course I’m not all right! Get out of my head!_

_Rey, I didn’t mean to –_

_Stay away from me!_

_Can we please talk?_

_Why?_ she snapped. _Who are you?_

_I can’t tell you yet, but –_

He tried to see through the bond. He could make out the outlines of a cage. She was inside a _cage_.

Ben inhaled sharply. Had she been hurt? Why were they holding her like that, like some kind of feral animal? He was going to –

 _Oh, no you don’t! Not again! Stop getting angry!_ Rey shouted at him.

_I’m not –_

_Yes, you are. Stop it! Why are you in my head? How can you talk to me?_

Ben took a deep breath. He had hoped to postpone a conversation like this, but would he ever be ready to have it?

_We are connected through the Force._

There was quiet from the other end. He sensed that she was not unfamiliar with the concept. She’d heard the legends and the myths. She just couldn’t quite believe it.

 _You have the Force, Rey_ , he added, hoping that that wouldn’t spook her too much. _You have always been able to do certain things._

Rey shook her head. The claim puzzled and even disturbed her, yet it also seemed to confirm things she did not want confirmed.

 _I don’t understand_ , she finally said. _Who are you and why do you care what happens to me? How do you even know my name?_

Ben clenched his fists. He had to be careful. He couldn’t say something stupid like -

 _Because – because I knew your parents_.

Oh, apparently he could.

Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. Okay, technically it wasn’t a lie.

 _They would’ve wanted me to look after you_ , he added.

Right, that _was_ a lie, or at least a very hopeful interpretation of reality.

He could feel Rey’s shock through the bond, the flaring of hope and the _dread_ that it would be snatched away again.

Ben ached for her. He wished more than anything he could have killed Palpatine long before the Sith had murdered her parents.

_You – why did you say **knew**? Why do you talk about them like –_

Ben swore under his breath. He was quickly losing this game. Why did he ever think he could play it?

_I’ve lost contact with them. I don’t know where they are._

_But you know them? You can tell me about them?_

_Yes…I’ll tell you when we meet in person. One day._

_Tell me now!_ she cried out.

_Right now, I need to get you out of there. Do you know where you’re going?_

**_Stop_ ** _. I need to know about my parents._

_Rey –_

_Why did they leave me on Jakku?_

Ben wished he’d never brought up her parents, but it was too late to turn back now.

_To protect you. You are a Force user. That’s a much-desired ability…there are people in this universe who’d want to hurt you for it._

_Then let them have it. I don’t want it. I just want them back._

He could tell she was lying to herself. She wouldn’t be able to give up the Force once she had a real taste of it.

 _I promise I’ll help you find them_ , he said, feeling like a steaming pile of Tauntaun shit. _But I need to help you first._

There was an internal struggle inside her, he could feel it.

After another pause, she said, _Let me see your face._

Ben stilled. That wasn’t a good idea, was it? But he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a good idea, anyway.

 _I’ve already seen it, remember?_ she reminded him in a softer voice.

And he suddenly felt a surge of affection for her - his wild yet gentle little scavenger. Except, of course, she wasn’t his.

He reached into the bond until his walls collapsed and they were both looking at each other.

Rey drew back.

He sat just outside her cage, cross-legged, barely visible in the darkness, but that did little to camouflage his size. He was almost a giant. He could have easily picked up both cage and her.

She wasn’t afraid, but she was not entirely comfortable either.

She stared at his face, wide-eyed, poring over every feature. As much as she could see.

He did the same, noting with chagrin the blood at her temples and the scratches on her arms. She had fought back and been punished. Someone had dared to -

No, he had to rein _in_ his temper. 

Rey parted her lips.

_I don’t know why, but it feels like…_

_You already know me?_ he supplied, offering a small smile.

_Yes._

He felt the warmth of a hundred suns shining down on him. He was in real danger of widening that smile. He had to check himself.

“Who are you looking at, girl?” a voice suddenly drawled to his left. He stared at the adjacent cage, where an old squid-faced Quarren was glaring at the empty spot suspiciously.

“N-nothing. No one,” she replied, still staring at Ben.

 _How do I know you’re not lying to me...about everything?_ she asked, still captivated by his face.

Ben swallowed. _You wouldn’t be able to see me if you weren’t a Force user. This wouldn’t be possible. You know it. Like I do._ _We stopped that fall together, Rey._

Something flickered in her eyes, a kind of acknowledgement.

She nodded. 

_And my parents? You’re not lying about them?_

Ben forced himself not to flinch. _No, but I don’t know as much about them as you’d like me to._ _And I can’t tell you more now._ _I just need you to trust me._

Rey rubbed at her arm. _Trust needs to be earned_.

 _Then I’ll earn it_ , he said with a nod, hoping that she could see he was entirely honest about this, at least.

Rey shivered, as if nipped by a cold wind. There was a strange feeling in her belly, not entirely unpleasant.

Ben felt it, too, but he didn’t allow himself to hope. He desperately wanted to reach out and touch her through the bars, but he knew that was a step too far. This he hadn’t earned, and he might never earn. And he had to find peace with that, somehow.

Somehow.

 _Rey, you need a teacher_ , he said, shaking off other treacherous thoughts. _I can teach you the ways of the Force. I can help you escape._ _This cage cannot contain you. With my training, you will be able to break it into pieces._

Rey licked her lips. She drew imperceptibly closer to the edge of the cage. To him.

“You all right, girl? What are you doing?” the Quarren asked again, tentacles quivering.

He could not hear what they were saying, but it was clear to anyone that Rey was under someone’s thrall.

 _Show me. Show me how to break it_ , she said, ignoring the Quarren. _Show me how you do it._

Ben swallowed thickly. There was something in her voice, her eyes. A kind of innocent determination. The lick of darkness. Luke was right. Given the opportunity, she would sink down greedily, guilelessly. Because she did not see the difference between Light and Darkness as others did.

And _kriff_ , it was intoxicating. He wanted to break the cage and take her. He wanted –

He clenched his jaw.

Even if he broke the cage, he couldn’t help her take down a whole ship. Not without her getting hurt. He needed to be smart about this, unlike before.

_I will. But we’ll take it one step at a time. First, tell me where you’re going._

Rey chanced a look at the Quarren who was still watching her carefully.

_He said we’re going to Cantonica. Something about fathiers…and cleaning their…dung._

Ben reeled back. Cantonica?

Home of the infamous Canto Bight. Why was the universe taking her _there_? It had to mean something.

He thought quickly. He could send transports to fetch her, under the guise of buying weapons. Canto Bight regularly traded with the First Order. And then what? Where would the transport take her? Who would find out? Anyone on the transport would know about the girl. No, he had to come down on his personal ship, alone. But that would take time. _Kriff_.

And what would he do about the tracking chip inside her? He'd have to figure it out. 

_Okay. We can make that work_ , he said, and only a moment later realized he had said “we”.

Rey didn’t seem to mind.

“Guards! Guards, something fishy’s going on with this one! Guards!” the Quarren started shouting from his corner, pointing at Rey.

Ben growled in frustration. He could almost choke him where he stood.

 _Don’t!_ Rey shouted. _You shouldn’t use the Force like that._

Ben could almost laugh. She was already calling it by name. If only she knew the horrible ways he had used it in the past. She would never look at him again. Or maybe she would get ideas. After all, she had been tempted too.

 _I know_ , he said. _I’m sorry_.

The lights in the hull started to flicker. He heard movement on the stairs.

_If you are in danger, I will know it and be here. We’ll talk soon._

His face started to fade.

_Wait, I don’t even know –_

But he was gone before she could finish.

_Your name._

Rey turned angrily towards the Quarren. “What is _your_ problem?”

The creature sniffed. “I was trying to _help_ you.”

“Well, don’t. I’m _fine_.”

“I’ve seen people like you before. Oh, yes, I have.”

“What kind of people?” she asked, heart beating fast.

Luckily, the guards interrupted them.

Several hulking Crolutes threatened them with stun-sticks until they both lay down meekly, head buried in their lap.

Rey squeezed her eyes shut.

Her parents hadn’t forgotten about her.

And she was a Force user.

That’s all that mattered now.

The moment Ben broke the connection he heard the loud beeping coming from his robes.

He got up with a groan and fetched the small device from his pocket.

His eyebrows lifted.

He’d planted a small tracking device on Poe Dameron’s jacket during their interrogation and it now showed him that the pilot was leaving Jakku.

On what appeared to be the Millennium Falcon.

_Oh._

Ben looked out the window. The rainy Hosnian afternoon did not give him anything to cheer about. But the thought of his father’s ship did almost bring a smile to his face.

It quickly disappeared when he realized the many complications this would engender.

It would’ve been preferable if _no one_ had boarded a wanted ship like that. Who would come chasing it out of the dark? The First Order? Bounty hunters? Han himself?

He closed his eyes, trying to focus on the signal and the familiar freighter.

He’d loved it so much as a child, and came close to hating it too.

The connection was faint, but he was almost sure that Finn was on the Millennium too. He could sense his Force signature, as unintentional as it was.

Ben heaved a sigh.

He could only hope that BB-8 and the map were also with them and that they were heading straight to the Resistance.

If not…there would be trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we'll find out more about Finn and Poe and where they're going next time. and yes, that particular Quarren is someone from canon...that I'm playing around with here. anyway, thank you for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for all your feedback! i hope you like this chapter!

The Millennium Falcon had an innate grace that couldn’t be described until you sat behind the control wheel and hit the throttle levers. Poe felt like he was rising out of a thick fog, as if he were flying for the first time. He marveled at its design, which looked bulky and unyielding from afar, but which turned into bird-like agility when the ship rose up into the stratosphere. He couldn’t believe he was sitting in the cockpit. So much history had taken place on this freighter. He wondered what General Leia would say when he returned with it. 

“When you’re done making eyes at the ship, could you give me a hand?”

Poe turned around. Finn was struggling with the med-kit. 

“Oh, shit. Sorry, I zoned out.”

“I could tell.” 

Poe felt guilty and a little hesitant around his new friend. He wasn’t sure if he could trust the ex-Stormtrooper with his Resistance intel just yet, but he’d certainly proven himself on Jakku. They’d had to fight a whole crew of Teedos and Crolutes to recover BB-8, but Finn hadn’t tried to get out of it, even if he had every right to. In fact, he’d gotten hurt over it. Poe squeezed his shoulder. “It’s my fault. I should’ve covered you better.” 

“Hey, I was the one who wanted to tag along. Better with you than with the First Order.” 

Poe smiled. He rolled up Finn’s shirt and started dabbing the deep wound with disinfectant, after which he uncapped a cylinder of bacta. 

“Is the droid gonna be okay?” Finn asked, hissing slightly when Poe applied the bacta. 

“He has to be. I won’t accept the alternative.”

“And you’re sure that...Kijimi is the place to take him?”

Poe nodded vehemently. “There’s a droidsmith there called Babu Frik. If anyone can fix my friend it’s him. I have to try. Many people’s lives depend on it.”

Finn nodded, feeling a little flustered. He had just wanted to escape. Now he was on a mission to fix a droid who had been badly damaged by poachers. Poor BB-8 was lying in a small box-kit a few feet away, head drooping to the side. 

“It’s just that…” Finn trailed off, unable to shut up. “Kijimi has a reputation. Not a very nice reputation.”

Poe chuckled. “I know. Believe me, I wouldn’t want to go there unless I had to.”

“But you’ve been before?”

“Yeah...I...Let’s say I used to have some contacts down there. Contacts that don’t like me much anymore.”

“What did you do?” 

“Oh, you know, this and that,” Poe drawled, winking. 

Finn stilled. No one had winked at him before, not like Poe, anyway. He wanted to laugh it off, but the pilot’s fingers on his arm were too warm to ignore. 

“Are we gonna get in trouble while we’re down there?”

Poe wrapped the bandages around his arm. “Very likely.” 

Finn knew he wasn’t actually joking. Despite his trepidation, he found he didn’t mind it so much. Not in his company, anyway. 

  
  


“Next!”

Rey shuffled forward. The queue stretched outside the hangar. In the distance, she could see the dark outline of silos and barracks. 

Rey inhaled deeply. Despite her unfortunate circumstances, she couldn’t help enjoying the change of air. The breeze on Cantonica was sea-sweet, fresh and a little humid. She had never smelled anything so lovely on Jakku. She had never seen the sea either. She could tell it was only a few miles away. If she focused hard enough, she could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs. 

Behind the hangar, she’d seen the outline of craggy mountains. Another novelty. They were thickly carpeted with trees of a green so intense that it almost made her eyes hurt. Down here, the ground was covered in soft yellow summer grass and the tall crops listed golden towards the ground. 

There were so many colors she had never seen before except in pictures and even there, too faded to tell. She absorbed everything hungrily.

“Stop gawking!” the Warden upbraided and one of the guards hit her knee with a stick. 

Rey hissed. She grabbed her cup of gruel and the tattered, smelly blanket and nodded her head. She was surprised to be given this much. Following the line of prisoners, she walked across the meadow to another hangar. She stared furtively in the distance at the dying sun which dappled every blade of grass a fleshy shade of red. 

Half of the prisoners lay down on their blankets and tried to sleep. The other half had already been hauled onto a transport to various unknown destinations. There was talk of farms and stables and cities and casinos. She couldn’t see the Quarren anywhere. She was almost glad. 

Rey downed the gruel noisily. It tasted sour and fermented, but it filled her stomach, if only for a moment. 

She couldn’t sleep. The air was growing colder and the thin blanket did not keep very warm. Nights on Jakku were a different kind of cold, clammy and sweaty and frigid. This cold was sharp, almost teasing. She rubbed at her arms, trying to think of warmth, to imagine warmth, to conjure it, to _become_ it...Could that be done with the Force, she wondered? 

She closed her eyes and breathed. 

Her breathing grew steady, rhythmic. 

And then - a flood of hot light enveloped her.

Rey gasped. 

She opened her eyes. 

And closed them quickly.

The floodlights blinded her. They turned the whole perimeter in front of the hangars a snowy white. 

Someone crouched down and pulled the blanket from her body. 

Rey screwed her eyes shut against the flashlight that poured over her features. 

His staff pressed against her belly, making her go rigid. He tapped her shoulders and chest lightly over the fabric. She was being inspected. A gloved hand grabbed her cheek forcefully and turned her head sideways. 

“Mm. You’ll do nicely in the casino.”

Rey pulled her head away with a snarl. “Don’t _touch_ me.” 

She tried to grab the staff and hit him in the groin, but he seized her wrist in a flash. 

“One likes a bit of fire,” the man drawled, rich robes billowing behind him in the breeze. His hair was grey and slicked back and his jowls were prominent. “But not _that_ much.” 

He gave her a back-handed slap, light and patronizing. She barely felt it, yet it stung all the more.

“Transport 5,” he gestured to the guards, who placed cuffs around her wrists and hauled her up. 

Rey watched the “inspector” move on to the next body huddled on the ground. He didn’t bother much with the mammal, only muttered “racetrack” and swept past. 

Rey was marched off in the other direction. 

Transport 5 was a chariot-style cruiser, designed to show off whatever it carried. A dozen other women and females had been rounded up and were boarding the chariot. All of them looked stupefied, too afraid to even show fear. 

She rode in the back next to a tall, glass-spun Twi’lek whose appendages coiled round her shoulders like serpents. She was beautiful. Rey offered her a small smile. The woman’s lips were frozen, but she nodded her head.

Rey braced herself. She was going to survive this. She always did.

The air still smelled sweet.

  
  


The drive into Canto Bight stole her breath away. She had never seen a city before, much less a resort of this size and opulence, glittering and festive and positively _decadent_. Mushroom-capped castles and platinum-layered arenas terraced the green hills and valleys between the mountains. Silver-lit race tracks surrounded the hills like icing on a cake. The beaches were bathed in moonlight. 

But it was the sea - oh, the _sea_ \- that truly made her heart swell. Dark and still and beautiful, reflecting dancing lights in the small gulf where the city teemed with life. She couldn’t get enough of it. She breathed in deeply.

The Twi’lek cleared her throat next to her.

“It’s all fake, you know.”

Rey whipped her head around. “Sorry?”

The woman stared up at the turrets and towers that loomed ahead. Her lovely nacreous skin seemed a part of this jeweled world. “This... all of it. It’s not real.”

“What do you mean?”

“Environmental engineering. I should know, I helped design planets like these. Once.”

“You helped _design_ them?”

The Twi’lek’s lips twisted. “Where are you from?”

Rey debated whether to tell her or not, but in the end, what did she have to lose? The woman had given something of herself. It was her turn. 

“Jakku.”

“Oh. Well, you never left the desert. Not really. Cantonica is a desert planet, at its core, but segments of it have been engineered into a luxury resort. Everything you see here used to be barren. That there is the largest artificial ocean in the galaxy.”

Rey was stumped. She turned her head back to the sea. It looked so wonderfully real. She could almost taste the salt on her lips. 

It was truly perfect. 

And nothing ever was. 

Rey looked up at the city. “You must be good at your job.” 

The Twi’lek finally offered her a smile.

“Why - why are you imprisoned if you used to be part of this?” Rey asked.

The woman shrugged. “I got tired of being a part of it.” 

That was not exactly an answer, but Rey knew she wouldn’t get much further than that. 

She couldn’t resist staring back at the sea. However it had been made, it was real enough to her. 

  
  


Ben tapped his fingers against the chair. He swiveled in his seat, then stopped when he realized how stupid he looked. 

Then again, he wanted to stand out. He was dressed in full Knights of Ren regalia, helmet screwed on menacingly. The cantina was packed with suspicious busybodies, but no one dared approach him. That didn’t stop them from staring and whispering. He was the number one topic of discussion. Ben hoped they’d take the talk home. 

He toyed with the light, making himself go dark until he disappeared. The Force concealed him. He reappeared at the table as if by pure volition. Every time he did it, there was no shortage of mutters and gasps in the vicinity. The patrons did not understand what he was doing, but they assumed it was nefarious. Many had stalked out of the cantina, afraid to witness any further. 

Except for one small boy who was sitting on his mother’s lap at the bar. He grinned and clapped and pointed happily whenever Ben did his magic trick. 

Ben focused on the little boy. He revealed himself to him. No one else could see him. He took off his helmet and winked at him. Then disappeared once more. 

The boy shrieked with delight. He pulled on his mother’s sleeve, excited, trying to explain to her what had happened. She did not seem to believe him. In fact, she picked him up and dragged him away. The boy protested. He said something in his foreign tongue, something that sounded like “new friend”. 

Ben tried not to think about his family. He always failed at that. It had been so easy to slip away, to disappear from their sight, to pretend he wasn’t there. It was a familiar trick. 

He shook his head. 

High time he checked on Rey. 

He cloaked himself in the Force and removed his helmet. 

Ben reached out, soft tendrils seeking the channel of the bond. The back of his spine tingled. 

It felt warm. 

Stifling even. 

Difficult to breathe.

Steam engulfed him.

His heart lurched. _Where -?_

Water. A furious jet of water. Splashing feet. Wet bodies lined up across the tiled floor.

A bare back, small and lithe. The enticing dip of a waist as water trickled down shapely curves. 

The petite woman sighed and craned her neck against the hot water.

Ben swallowed. 

His throat was parched. 

He knew he shouldn’t - he shouldn’t be here - he should _leave_ \- 

He watched beads of water slide down the furrow of her spine and he swallowed again. He had to leave right _now_ \- 

Rey glanced over her shoulder, a wet strand of hair stuck to the corner of her mouth. He wanted to pull it away. She turned towards him and a flash of her nakedness made his side of the bond stutter. 

He reeled back in shame, rushing to seal it. 

Ben leaned over the table and breathed heavily. He was still in the cantina, he had to remember that. He wiped the water from his face. Water trickled down his glove. 

The place was too quiet. 

People were staring at him.

 _Kriff_. The Force concealment had slipped. 

He glared at them. 

Let them see this face. He would not make them forget. He knew he could appear quite menacing without his mask. There was something disturbing about a young man who carried himself like an ancient warrior. 

He rose, making the chair and table fall over. He grabbed his helmet and stalked out of the cantina. The patrons scurried out of his way. They could sense his temper flashing dangerously with each heavy step. 

Unpredictable, unstable, ungovernable. 

The path to the light was shadowed. 

There were temptations everywhere. And she was the first and the last. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just wanted to mention that the Twi'lek is not someone from canon, she's my creation, but she'll play an interesting part later on. oh, and the part about Canto Bight being a fake, gentrified spa is canon lol. thx for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for your feedback! and sorry for the delay, I've been struggling with writing. It's been a rough time for all of us, I think. I hope this chapter brightens your evening a bit.

Rey kept pulling down the hem of her skirt ineffectually. Dia paused at her side. The Twi’lek cast her an amused glance.

“You know, the more you do that, the more you draw attention to your bare skin.”

“I don’t care. This thing is too short and it itches,” Rey muttered, trying to balance the tray of drinks.

Dia cocked her head, appendages quivering.

“Try to focus on something else. Picture them,” and she pointed at the various bored patrons sprawled across the suite, “in a tight skirt instead.”

Rey scrunched her nose. “I don’t think that’s any better.”

Dia frowned. “Ugh. You’re right. Well, off we go.”

Rey nodded and followed Dia’s lead. For days now she’d been glued to her new friend. It had been inevitable, once they discovered their quarters were on the same floor.

Rey had never had a proper friend before. It was a strange, yet familiar experience. As if she’d always _known_ Dia, even though the Twi’lek had shared very little of her history, and might never share more. Rey did not mind so much. She had no history to share.

Still, this sort of work brought people together.

Rey did not know how to describe the work. She traipsed around lavish rooms for hours on end, carrying drinks and food to people who practically _bathed_ in credits until her ankles pinched and her feet cried out in the heels she was not accustomed to. The goal was to be as invisible as possible, yet also “pleasing to the eye”. Their female overseer (whose official, pompous title was ‘Grand Hostess’) told them they were decorative elements _first_ and servers second.

Rey hadn’t thought the “decorative” part would be so literal. She was appalled when she first laid eyes on her “uniform”. No matter which way she turned it, she was exposed. She inspected herself clinically in the mirror for the first time as her roommates applied makeup. It was all so new to her, including the mirror. Seeing yourself from all angles was desecrating and discomfiting. She had lived a full life without reflecting surfaces and she couldn’t abide their strange power. She sometimes lay in her bed at night, stroking the pillow - for she’d never _had_ the experience of a bed before and it was almost luxurious - and stared at the dark vanity across the room, opaque but shifting with shadows. Her roommates would be snoring in the beds below but she would be staring at the mirror for hours, seeing all sorts of dark shapes in it. 

It was an unmooring, a shifting of worlds, as she realized how many things she was not used to, how many things she had missed. She had to remind herself constantly not to rub at her eyes and make the mascara run like flecks down her cheeks, as she did on the first night when people stared at her funny. She also had to stop fiddling with her hair. They had allowed her to pull her hair in a tight knot, but gone was her familiar three buns. She supposed it did not matter now – her parents wouldn’t be here.

This brought to mind her other “friend”, the mysterious Force user.

He had appeared to her on her second morning here, as she was walking towards the kitchens to grab a much-needed hot meal after standing on her feet all night. 

Rey stopped dead when she heard his call. Soft, but demanding.

She managed to duck into a utility closet. The others girls already thought she was a little weird, the way she touched all the objects around her – beauty creams and perfumes and sheer camisoles—like they were ancient artifacts. She would not acquire a better reputation by stopping in the middle of a corridor to talk to herself.

The closet was small and made only smaller when his fractured shadow grew and grew, then his tall frame was there, in front of her. 

Rey took a step back, colliding with some shelves. There was not enough space to contain him.

This was the second time she was afforded a proper look at him and she found it just as startling as the first. He gave her the impression of youth, but at the same time of several lives lived. There was something savage and blunt in the shape of his large mouth, something careworn and unsettling in the shadows under his eyes. He was – not handsome, not exactly, but interesting in an unspecified way. Alluring, almost – but maybe that was the Force.

His eyes raked over her too, taking in her outfit.

“ _What_ are you wearing?”

It was strange hearing his voice outside her head.

Rey fought the urge to drag the hem down again. “Hello to you, too. The standard uniform, if you must know.”

He frowned and his displeasure was so visible that she suddenly had the ridiculous thought that he would be a really awful card player. From what she had seen at the various playing tables she had served, there was a constant need for subterfuge and hiding even the smallest of emotions. That came easier to some species than others.

“I’m getting you out of this place soon,” he said, eyes looking anywhere but at her exposed skin. “I’m sorry you have to work here.”

“It’s – not so bad,” she said, with a hitch. She was only really uncomfortable when some of the patrons leered at her or told her to come closer or _touched_ her when she bent down to serve drinks. Her first night, she almost slapped the man who trailed his fat knuckle down the length of her knee. But she had had to bite her tongue and only glare at him because the Grand Hostess was watching and several private guards were patrolling. She imagined none would be too kind to her.

“Yes, it _is_ ,” he said, a little harsher, as inklings of her thoughts reached him.

Rey shook her head. She wanted to put more distance between them, but she couldn’t. She knew he was not technically _there_ , but he felt too close. She moved a hand to the side of her neck. It felt a little difficult to breathe in this corset. “I don’t even know your name. Last time, I didn’t get a chance to ask.”

The man before her shifted – hesitated. Looked down, unsure. It was almost a boyish gesture.

“Ben,” he finally offered.

“Ben?” she echoed, surprised. It was such a homely, simple name. It made her think of moisture farms and broods of rollicking children. She had pictured something more grandiose for someone so large and mysterious.

“Where are you now, Ben?”

“Hosnian Prime,” he answered, knowing very well she had no idea where that was. “I’ll come for you soon, but until then we need to work on your abilities.”

Rey swallowed. “You mean practice using the Force?”

“Yes. We’ll start small. Everyday objects you will learn to manipulate. Then we’ll move on to people.”

“ _People_?”

“Yes, you will be able to influence them too. Everything is part of the Force. Everyone is susceptible.”

Rey presumed as much, but it still felt like a foreign concept, foreign and dangerous the way he said it. _Everyone is susceptible._

He raised his hand slightly and Rey was for a moment frightened – and a little excited – that he might touch her, but she realized what he was doing when a roll of tape floated past her head from the shelf below. Ben moved it from one shelf to the next in a fluid motion.

Rey watched, mesmerized. She realized he must be very powerful, since he was able to manipulate the objects on her end when he was somewhere else.

“Now you try it. Move it back to where it was,” he said. “Focus on the energy surrounding the tape, focus on where you want it to be. Lead it there gently. Invite it.” 

His voice was like paraffin wax, the kind used to cool old engines. She could have listened to it forever, but she felt foolish for thinking so.

Rey lifted her hand and coaxed the tape forward. Nothing happened for several moments. Her forehead was creased in concentration. Finally, the tape shifted, lurched comically, and fell with a thump to the floor.

Rey was both embarrassed and delighted. She had _moved_ it, even if incorrectly.

She knelt down to pick it up, but the tape had managed to roll under the shelves. She fumbled in the dark for a moment, cursing under her breath. And then she looked up.

She was kneeling in front of him.

From this vantage point, he was a mountain. Her head barely reached his belt, where she saw the hilt of a weapon gleaming.

Ben’s jaw was set. His eyes were dark and volatile, his expression almost unfriendly.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” she asked, finally grabbing the roll of tape.

Ben nodded. “No, not bad. You will do _better_ next time. I – have to go, but we will talk soon.”

And he vanished before she had time to reply.

 _Rude_ , she thought, getting up and dusting her knees.

He seemed to enjoy disappearing out of the blue.

He hadn’t appeared to her physically since. He had only visited her thoughts, giving her small instructions here and there.

Tonight, for instance, he had told her to try and raise one object from her tray and keep it an inch in the air so that no one around her would notice. It seemed like a rudimentary, yet difficult feat to accomplish, and he probably meant it that way. The smallest gestures required the greatest effort sometimes. 

Rey walked the room, staring at the glittering floor-length chandeliers and golden arches, wondering if she was ever going to get answers from the universe or if she was just meant to admire its beauty. And Canto Bight _was_ obscenely beautiful. Almost ugly in its excess of gauze and silk and diamonds. She felt lucky to watch the monstrosity unfold. 

Not tonight, though. Tonight she was blind to it. She meandered between tables, keeping track of the patrons, as she tried to get the one teaspoon she had set on the tray to rise from its napkin. Her attention slipped for several seconds at a time as she saw the spoon’s handle tremble and spasm.

“You there, girl, are you _deaf_ or just pretending not to hear? Humans have truly _atrocious_ coordination.”

Rey blinked.

The man in front of her had sharp, slanted eyes and white hair crowning a bald pate. His nose was tusked and his mouth scowled. She didn’t recognize his species, but he somehow inspired more contempt than fear.

“Well, don’t just gawp like a fathier! You weren’t hired to stare, I imagine.”

Rey bit her lip. _I wasn’t hired at all._ “What will you be having, sir?”

He waved his hand in histrionic dismissal and the Chagrian sitting next to him in pale blue robes leaned forward. “The Baron Yasto would very much appreciate a bottle of your finest Riosan mead, a scalding Varactyl scale, and two crustacean soufflés on the side.”

Rey fought the urge to roll her eyes. The Baron must have felt very important indeed if he couldn’t order for himself. She thumbed the order in her pad, propping it on the tray. 

As she punched in the keys she felt a sudden warmth at the small of her back.

The grinning Subulba sitting on the other side of the Baron was trying to dislodge one of the buttons of her corset with his nimble fingers. Rey was so shocked for a moment that she could not even speak. She gripped the tray with shaking fingers. She wanted to hit him with it.

But she didn’t get to – suddenly, the Subulba removed his fingers with a sharp hiss, waving them before him spasmodically.

He started yelling at her in a foreign tongue.

Rey blanched.

The Baron scowled, seizing her up as if she had just drawn a weapon. His Chagrian assistant leaned forward again. “Our Subulba friend says you burned his fingers, Miss.”

“His fingers had no business being there!” she retorted, unable to help herself, but internally panicking because _she_ had done that, she must have. She had used the Force without wanting to, or maybe wanting it a little _too_ much.

“He says he was only trying to pick up a glass of champagne,” the Chagrian said, as the Subulba kept yelling.

Rey raised an eyebrow. “Oh, and I suppose the champagne was inside my corset?”

“How dare you level such vulgar accusations!” the Baron reeled on her, raising a fluttering hand to his forehead. “Have you _any_ idea who I am?”

“No, I don’t, Sir, but if this is the company you keep –”

“Silence! You will answer for this abominably insolent behavior! I will make sure your superiors know–”

“Oh, come on, Yasto, you’re in Canto Bight. There’s no such thing as superiors here,” a voice drawled from the other end of the table. “So why don’t you lighten up.”

Everyone was rendered silent. 

Rey frowned. 

The speaker was an older man with grey in his hair. He smirked as he drew up a chair, but his eyes were cool and calculating. Next to him was a huge, hairy Wookie. She noted that both of them were dressed like travelers just come off a ship. They hadn’t bothered with evening clothes for the occasion.

“That’s Baron Yasto to you,” the Chagrian chimed in, glaring at the intruder.

The Baron lifted his hand, his previous anger apparently forgotten.

“Han Solo,” he said slowly. “Bold of you to show your face around these parts. Bold of you to show your face _anywhere_ , matter of fact. I believe there’s a bounty on your head.”

The older man shrugged. “There’s always a bounty on my head. You interested in claiming it?”

The Baron narrowed his eyes further. “What _are_ you doing here, then?”

The man called Han Solo looked at her for the first time. His eyes were light and shrewd and he seemed to see right through. Rey lowered her gaze.

“Why don’t you tip the girl for her trouble first?” he said, nudging his head towards her.

“Pah, tip her!” the Baron exclaimed. “After the disturbance she caused, she’ll be lucky to still work here.”

“No one’s lucky to work here,” Han Solo observed. “And besides, what did she do exactly? I know you don’t think much of humans, but they can’t _normally_ burn people’s fingers.”

Rey raised her head. It was the _normally_ – the way he’d said it –

It was at that moment that Dia came up behind her. She had probably noticed Rey was in trouble. You could rely on her to notice.

“Can I be of assistance, gentlemen? My friend here is new, you see. She is still learning. But never fear, I will take care of you tonight,” she said dreamily, coming between Rey and the angry patrons.

The Baron appeared slightly mollified upon gazing at the gorgeous Twi’lek. It was hard to resist her, particularly up close.

Dai squeezed her arm – a signal that she should probably scramble before the Baron actually went forward with his complaints. 

Rey stepped back, tray wobbling in her arms precariously. She was still a little feverish from the rush of it – the Force.

She was about to turn away when the same playful voice called her back.

Han Solo.

“Don’t forget your tip, sweetheart.”

He raised a few coins at her.

Rey came closer and took them, slipping them in the pocket of her skirt.

“Thank you, Sir.”

Han Solo looked up at her with a lazy smile, but his eyes searched her over, as if he knew or guessed – _something_.

She realized now his features looked slightly familiar, but she couldn't say why. 

The Wookie next to him issued a small roar. His gaze shifted.

“Two beers for us, if you will. Whatever's cheapest. We're not picky.”

Rey nodded and turned away.

She walked on unsteady feet towards the bar. She didn’t know why she had a funny, ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach.

When she looked down at the tray she noticed that the teaspoon was bent in half. 


End file.
